Moderna, Inc. (MRNA) 2023 ESG Day Conference (Transcript)

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) 2023 ESG Day Conference Call December 7, 2023 8:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Lavina Talukdar – Head of Investor Relations

Stéphane Bancel – Chief Executive Officer

Kyle Holen – Head of Development, Oncology & Therapeutics

Jameka Hill – Senior Director, Clinical Trial Health Equity

Hamilton Bennett – Senior Director of Vaccine Access & Partnerships

Deborah Donovan – Senior Vice President and Head Environment, Health & Safety

Tracey Franklin – Chief Human Resources Officer

Katherine O’Malley – Executive Director of Communications

Shannon Klinger – Chief Legal Officer

Conference Call Participants

Operator

Good morning or good afternoon, everyone and welcome to Moderna’s second ESG Day. Today, you will hear from team members across Moderna about progress we’ve made since last year, an important sustainability initiatives. This morning, we issued a press release and presentation slides, both of which can be found on the Investor section of our website.

Before we start, please note that this presentation will include forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Safe Harbor Provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Please refer Slide 2 of our accompanying presentation and our SEC filings for important risk factors that could cause our actual performance or results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these forward-looking statements.

With that, I’m very happy to turn it over to Stéphane to start off the day.

Stéphane Bancel

Thank you so much, Lavina. Good morning or good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today. We really like to welcome you to this important ESG there. Let me start where I should start which is the most important in what we do with our mission. As you know, our mission is to deliver the greatest possible impact to people through mRNA medicine. And as you know, Moderna has been built as a platform. Since the beginning, we believe this will be zero drug or a lot. Well, now we know because, of course, of approval is that this will be a lot the ability to build a platform where we can create a lot of medicines for patients. That’s why we work every day of the company. In that framework, if you think about it, we have set up this ESG framework which is how do you build the best version of Moderna.

And we believe, of course, it starts with medicines for patients that you see at the top of this pictogram. But we think the other aspects are very critical in respect of the environment, having amazing employees, being parts and fostering our communities and, of course, strong governance and strong ethics. We believe this ecosystem is what we build the best version of Moderna and that’s what we have been working on for many years now.

If you now double-click on each component quickly at a high level before the team we spend time on each topic. Of course, medicines for patients starts with the medicines that we want to bring to patients through our pipeline. And as we’ve shared at R&D Day and give some update recently, we have several medicines that we’re very excited to launch in 2024 and in ’25, as you can see in blue on the top left of the table. But what’s truly exciting was coming right after. As you can see, Moderna is firing on every cylinder for patients. We also latest viruses, also cancer and rare genetic disease, having very strong clinical signal and we believe those programs could be launched in the ’26, ’27 and ’28 time frame. But while those are really products we believe will drive sales and cash flow for the company so that we can invest in R&D to bring more innovation for patients, there’s another side our focus on medicine for patients which is this disease X.

As you know, Moderna believe that we have a very important role to play, to prepare for a potential next pandemic. As you know, the WHO has called this disease X, to be prepared for whatever nature could throw at us. And I mentioned, we shall in a while, is we have launched mRNA access. An access is a very important tool in that vision to be able to create an ecosystem where we can partner with the best scientific minds around the world in academia to really help us prepare for disease X so that we are ready from a biology standpoint. And so that if nature throws us is a new pathogen, we can very quickly develop a vaccine, scale a vaccine and bring vaccines to usually hundreds of millions or billions of people very quickly and I believe, even much quicker than what the team was able to realize with COVID.

Let’s now talk to the next chapter which is, of course, the environment. We believe that any compression in the world, Moderna has a societal responsibility to make sure we minimize our impact in the environment which is why, as you know, we set a goal to be a net zero carbon emission for Scope 1 and 2 by 2030 and the team will give you an update on that journey. We also want to develop science-based targets for the short term and also long term for Scope 3. Those are extremely important.

As I like to say, real estate, with issue in business school is location, location, location, where I believe that business is people, people, people. And since we started the company, we have been obsessed at Moderna to really attract the best people, to grow the best people and to create an environment where people can all become the best version of themselves. Tracey will, of course, spend time giving you some updates there. But as you can see in terms of recognition, our employees continue for a lot of surveys to recognize the work of a company, but be assured we are not done. We keep innovating. We keep inventing new things. We really want to stay one of the best companies to work for. So we can do the best science, so we can serve the patients and be a good actor in the community.

Talking about the community; I’d like to tell our employees at the onboarding and welcome new employees when we were Moderna 1 which is our onboarding program for new employees that if all of us to not engage with the community, we should not expect to live in a nice community. And that means, of course, to nation, but donations only have money, the nation of time, i.e., volunteering. And so we have a lot of volunteering efforts of the company and Kate will give you an update on that topic when

And then last but not least, because again, it’s an ecosystem, there’s no ranking of those different aspects is we want a strong governance. And Shannon will give you an update on Board governance, Executive Committee governance. And we keep on strengthening this. We have been talking with a lot of investors in the fall and we continue to want to have feedback from investors on how do we continue to scale and strengthen our governance, so it’s very top notch, best-in-class in what is done around the world, not only in the U.S. And of course, the communication around this journey, all the metrics and other reporting is very, very important for us and Shannon will give you an update on that.

So with that kind of framing at a high level, let me quickly give you a sense for the agenda. We’re going to go and follow this framework. So we’re going to have several team members talking to you about medicines for patients. And then Deborah will come and give you an update on the environment. Tracey will talk about employees. Kate will talk about the community and the work we are doing there. And then, of course, Shannon will talk about governance and ethics. I will come back with a quick slide to close and then the team and I will be delighted to take your questions.

With this, let me now turn to Kyle.

Kyle Holen

Thank you, Stéphane. Good morning. Hello. It’s really great to be here today. I’m going to talk to you today about one of my passions which is finding therapies for those affected by rare diseases. As you heard, my name is Kyle Holen and I’m responsible for the clinical development of our rare disease and oncology portfolios.

On the next slide, I’ll repeat the message that Stéphane had in his presentation. We have this incredible potential with the platform to create many medicines using the same technology and manufacturing processes. As proteins are the workhorses for cellular functions, we can change and manipulate these functions by creating proteins through mRNA, either through as evidenced at the top are vaccines, or through secretive proteins or in the last example, by replacing proteins in cases where they either don’t exist or aren’t functioning properly.

On the next slide, you can see a variety of ways that we’ve been able to build our pipeline through the use of our state-of-the-art technology. At the top of this slide are our IV vaccine portfolio. And then next, you’ll see our rare disease, oncology, autoimmune and cardiovascular medicines. For today, I’d like to share with you a little bit more about our rare disease programs.

Now many people don’t realize that rare diseases are actually not rare. As you can see on this slide, there are a large number of patients who are affected by rare diseases, including hundreds of millions of people worldwide. And in fact, 1 in 10 people in the U.S. are living with some type of rare disease, including rare cancers. But there’s a challenge with these 400 million or so people that are affected by rare diseases. Each rare disease requires a unique therapy. As an example, a treatment for propionic acidemia [ph] is not going to be effective for those who are living with GSD1a or other glycogen storage diseases. And thus, we need to bring a drug in manufacturing and technology platform that can be used to create many different bespoke treatments for each person affected by a rare disease. Perhaps you can guess what that platform might be.

On this next slide, you can see with mRNA, we have the ability to create many unique treatments, down to individual patients which we are doing for INT, for those with diseases that may only affect a few. In this way, I believe that we can bring medicines to all those affected by rare diseases, including the roughly 1,200 different inborn areas of metabolism. We are engaging with global regulators around innovative approaches and innovative ways that we can leverage the platform data across all these different rare diseases. And on the next slide, I’ll share with you the reason why we believe this is possible. Our first 3 rare disease programs, programs in propionic acidemia, methylmalonic acidemia and glycogen storage diseases have already demonstrated impressive improvements in the lives of patients.

We have previously released data from our PA program, where we observed a greater than 70% reduction in metabolic decompensation events. For MMA, we observed a dose-dependent decline in MMA biomarkers. And for GSD1a patients have been able to sleep through the night without hypoglycemic events. So we’re super excited that in all 3 of our first 3 rare disease programs, we have proof of concept that mRNA can be effective.

And the reason why this is important, as you see on the next slide, is that besides the MDEs, the biomarkers and the reductions in hypoglycemia that I’ve described, we have heard directly from the patients that participated in our clinical trials about how these treatments impact their lives. And one quick story that I’d like to share with you that it’s relevant for this time of the year. We heard from one family that told us that for this past Christmas, it was the first time that their child could join them for Christmas dinner because he was able to eat the food that he was unable to eat in the past. And so it’s things like this that we — that inspire us to work harder and to bring these treatments to patients as quickly as possible.

And besides the stories of patients that we hear every day who have participated in these trials, I want to share with you that we’re not done. We have huge ambitions. As I mentioned, there are over 1,200 inborn areas of metabolism. And we’ve started 3 programs and we have 1,297 to go. And now I’d like you to hear directly from a patient and her family about what life is like living with a rare disease.

[Video being played]

Kyle Holen

Thank you. Really incredible video. And this is why we’re here at Moderna because we care. We care about kids like Jordy. Okay. I’d like to turn over the presentation now to my friend and colleague, Jameka Hill, who is doing really incredible work, ensuring that our clinical studies adequately represent the populations that are affected by these diseases to make.

Jameka Hill

Thank you so much, Kyle. Good morning, everyone. Good afternoon. As Kyle mentioned, my name is Jameka Hill and I’m the Senior Director of Patient Engagement and Clinical Trial Health Equity here at Moderna. And I’m really delighted to discuss Moderna’s unwavering commitment and surrounding efforts to advance Health Equity through inclusive research. At Moderna, we are working to bring forward mRNA-based treatments and vaccines that are equitable and effective for everyone, everywhere. And our approach to develop innovative medicines is fundamentally rooted in the diversity of our clinical trials.

For us, diversity is more than a compliance requirement. It’s an essential element of esthetic excellence. Recognizing the disease manifests and respond to treatments differently across various demographics, we design our clinical trials to mirror the global community, especially those disproportionately affected by the conditions we’re researching. We also acknowledge that historically, clinical trial participation has been a privilege of circumstance, very often excluding underserved communities. So Moderna has set a standard by where 37% of our participants in our healthy volunteer clinical trials are from ethnic groups. At least half are female and all age groups are appropriately across numerous geographies extending far beyond the confines of the United States and underlining our commitment to combat health and equalities and embrace diversity on a global scale.

Today, I’m so proud to share that we are not just meeting industry expectations; we’re setting them and then exceeding expectations in every demographic category. Moderna is consistently reaching out to medically underserved communities and underrepresented populations. In fact, Moderna has enrolled over 120,000 clinical trial participants into our infectious disease trials, ensuring those with the greatest disease burden are included. This commitment to diversity and inclusion is fundamental to our mission at Moderna and we take immense pride in developing mRNA-based medicines and vaccines that cater to everyone. Yet, attaining diversity is not a matter of coincidence. It’s the result of deliberate and strategic efforts.

We at Moderna hold the conviction that access to the clinical trial should not be a peripheral consideration, but rather a fundamental aspect of care that offers individuals of all backgrounds the opportunity to benefit from innovative treatments. Therefore, our efforts are anchored in fostering trust and revolve around 3 central pillars: increasing awareness, bringing clinical trials into communities and providing multiple participation options for individuals.

So let’s take a deeper look at each of these fundamental elements. Okay. So the predominant obstacle to clinical trial participation remains lack of awareness. Therefore, we believe it’s essential to provide individuals with information that not only resonates but also fosters a sense of engagement and trust. To address this challenge, Moderna prioritizes increasing the public’s visibility and understanding of the value of research, including Moderna’s clinical trials. We forge lasting partnerships with local community organizations, partner closely with health care providers and employ innovative approaches to increase awareness and education, particularly among groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in research.

Central to our culture here at Moderna, we also strive to make clinical trial participation more accessible. We recognize that logistical barriers are a very common challenge me, no matter their background. To this end, we implement novel solutions that bring our clinical trials closer to where potential participants live. We formed strategic partnerships with retail pharmacies, deploy mobile units, pop-up clinics and collaborate with numerous service providers. Our methods are carefully designed and continuously refined to address the specific needs of diverse regions and communities, always with the goal of ensuring that our initiatives are convenient for the participants and truly deliver a substantial positive impact on the communities we’re dedicated to serving.

Lastly, we understand that a one-size-fits-all approach does not adequately place clinical trial participants at the forefront. So we strive to design our clinical trials with optionality in mind and thus ensuring that a broader range of people can access our clinical trials as a viable care option. In 2023, 80% of Moderna’s clinical trials included flexibility within their schedule of trial activities. We believe that every participant should be offered the opportunity to decide where and when their assessments are conducted so long as it’s safe, permissible and in line with regulatory standards. We also aim to empower clinical trial participants with the freedom to choose appointment times that better align with their individual schedules, thereby minimizing cancellations and bolstering adherence to our clinical trials.

In fact, we have found that incorporating flexible visit schedules has actually been instrumental in boosting our enrollment and retention rates across several demographic categories. And to everyone’s excitement, we’ve also seen an increase in participants satisfaction. This focus on the participants’ needs is central to our mission and the pillars I’ve outlined play a crucial role not only in enrolling participants in our clinical trials, but also in ensuring we retain participants through trial completion. Our number one priority is to ensure the robustness of our scientific data. And by keeping a diverse and committed participant group throughout the life of our trials, we can all have confidence that the medicines and vaccines Moderna is developing will, in fact, be effective and relevant for the diverse populations that will ultimately use our products.

Please know that our commitment to solid scientific evidence is at the very heart of our dedication to providing clinical trials that are innovative, inclusive and attuned to the needs of people worldwide. Our approach to inclusive research is comprehensive and we go to great lengths to ensure our clinical trials inspire confidence, cultivates trust and accurately represents those at greatest risk and most likely to benefit from our products, thereby ensuring all people have access to the potential and might I add very exciting medicines of tomorrow.

It’s now my great pleasure to introduce Hamilton Bennett, who will discuss Moderna’s strategic vision for pandemic preparedness.

Hamilton Bennett

Good morning. As Jameka said, my name is Hamilton Bennett. I’m Senior Director of Vaccine Access and Partnership at Moderna. And this morning, I’ll share with you the steps that we are taking to continue to position our prophylactic vaccine platform for pandemic preparedness, outbreak response and ultimately, global public health. You’ve heard Kyle talk about an mRNA platform that can deliver many medicines. And while we’ve seen that play out with incredible science across our modalities, ours notable achievement to date remains our COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna used our platform to rapidly respond to the greatest public health threat of our time. In less than 1 year, we used our deep understanding of mRNA science, delivery science and manufacturing to bring our first COVID-19 vaccine to emergency authorization. And with over 1 billion doses of our vaccine administered, we’re proud to say that we have achieved this with a focus on vaccine equity and access.

In 2021, 25% of our COVID-19 vaccine was delivered to low and middle income countries. When product was sold to Gavi-eligible countries, it was provided at the lowest tier pricing. And we have maintained a commitment to not enforcing our COVID-19 patents when they are used in and for [indiscernible]. We are incredibly proud of what we’ve been able to achieve through our vaccine. And with annual updates to our COVID-19 vaccine sequence, we’ve demonstrated an ability to respond rapidly to new variants of concern. In 2022, we were able to bring forward a variant-containing vaccine in 63 days; the time from strain selection to FDA approval for the updated vaccine. This year, we made that updated 87 days. This reinforces that not only is our technology capable of rapid response, but we have the people, the processes and the know-how to deploy the technology again and again to address continued public health threats.

So what would it look like to deploy our platform to other respiratory threats like pandemic influenza. Influenza pandemics occur when a novel re-assorted virus is introduced to the population. There have been 4 influenza pandemics since the early 1900s. In 1918, the largest influenza pandemic on record resulted in more than 50 million deaths worldwide. Over the subsequent decades, in 1957, 1968 and most recently in 2009, novel strains of the virus were introduced and caused between 0.5 million and 1.5 million deaths each. The odds are good that we will each see multiple influenza pandemics in our lifetime. But pandemic response begins with pandemic preparedness.

So this summer, Moderna began to build a pandemic response dossier for pandemic influenza. The mRNA-1018 program currently in Phase I/II clinical testing will test vaccines designed to prevent influenza disease caused by avian influenza viruses of the H5 and H7 subtype. The goal is not simply to respond to these specific viruses, but to create the capability to respond to future threats and to do so quickly. The mRNA-1018 program will pull traditional influenza response into the age of mRNA. Here, I’ll use the most recent pandemic influenza event to highlight the potential of mRNA.

In this figure, I’m showing the epidemic curve of lab confirmed cases of pandemic H1N1 influenza resulting in hospital admissions in light blue, admissions to ICU in the blue and deaths in dark blue. This data comes from Public Health Canada and it’s representative of the waves that occurred across the Northern Hemisphere in 2009. The WHO declared a public health emergency of international concern on April 25. This mobilized the vaccine response community and industry was able to have an approved pandemic vaccine available on September 15. But when you consider the 4-week to 6-week delay that can occur between vaccine approval, to distribution and ultimately, administration, it’s apparent that despite these incredible efforts, vaccine was not available fast enough to prevent the second wave of influenza that we all experience at fall. But what if we could achieve COVID-19 like time lines with pandemic influenza.

In 2021, the G7 led by the U.K. government and in collaboration with CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation, set the objective of responding to a public health emergency within 100 days. I already shared with you that our COVID-19 program has responded in less than this in the last 2 years. But think about the public health impact that we could have had in 2009 if a vaccine was available 6 weeks earlier. This is the future of pandemic influenza in the age of mRNA. But ultimately, the threats to public health extend beyond COVID-19 and beyond influenza; they extend to disease X.

As you heard Stéphane say, disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic can be caused by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease. And while the potential sources of disease X may seem vast, through focused R&D on priority pathogens and collaborative exploration via our mRNA access program, we are building the pipeline to enable future response. Shortly, you will hear from one of our collaborators in this space. But first, I’ll take a few additional minutes to talk through our global health portfolio more broadly. On the next slide, I’ll share with you our priority packaging portfolio.

In 2022, we formally launched our global public health portfolio, the current status of that portfolio is displayed here. The original list of pathogens was created in response to the WHO, R&D blueprint priority pathogens and priority pathogens. Our objective remains to create a portfolio of vaccines that are able to leverage our scaled manufacture and the growing safety database to more rapidly respond to outbreaks in the future. We have advanced clinical candidate vaccines against COVID-19, Zika, Chikungunya, HIV. And this year, as I mentioned previously, we launched our Phase I/II clinical study for pandemic influenza, now shown here in addition to the global — original global public health portfolio. And this summer, we began our Phase I/II clinical study of the MPOX vaccine, a program that we launched in response to recent outbreaks caused by vaccine shortage and inequitable access.

You may also notice that a number of these programs are progressing via public-private partnerships. We believe that collaborations are absolutely critical to developing public health vaccines that will have an impact. And we engage diverse stakeholders as a key pillar of our global public health strategy.

And as I’ll discuss on our next slide, our mRNA access program is becoming quickly the vehicle through which we deploy our platform and continue to reflect the priorities of our research community. The mRNA access program opens our preclinical production capabilities to academic institutions around the world to decentralize research and development of mRNA vaccines. Our primary mission is to create novel life-saving medicines against emerging and neglected infectious diseases. The value in mRNA access is that the exploratory research that our academic collaborators are conducting is taking place on a platform and a platform that is built an early development engine, an engine that can accelerate products not only into the clinic but to licensure. It’s this kind of collaborative model for innovative research and the type of bold approach that Moderna is willing to take in our mission to advance the greatest impact on public health.

In the last year, we’ve nearly doubled the size of our mRNA access network, now 16 institutions strong. Through the program, our technology is placed in the hands of world-leading experts, allowing them to conduct cutting-edge research. And I’m excited to introduce you to one such researcher, Professor Teresa Lam of the University of Oxford. Professor Lam, Head of Vaccine Immunology at the University of Oxford Pandemic Sciences Institute, an Oxford Vaccine Group, one of the leading institutions in the world dedicated to vaccine research. She’s made a significant contribution to the field of immunology with a particular focus on designing and developing vaccines for infectious diseases of outbreak concern.

Professor Lam was instrumental in the development of the Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and played a key role in both its early design and clinical development. In 2021, she was appointed as an honorary officer of the British Empire for her services to public health. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a commitment to scientific excellence and has widely been recognized for her contributions to global health. Recently, she was awarded a CEPI grant to develop AI informed vaccines against novel pathogens with programmable technologies, like mRNA and the viral vector platform known as Chanox [ph].

I’ll now turn the floor over to Teresa Lam [ph] to speak a bit more about her work in global health and the paradigm shift that we will collectively enable towards better pandemic preparedness and response.

Unidentified Company Representative

Thank you so much for inviting me here today to speak about vaccine platform development for pandemic preparedness. I’m Professor Teresa Lam [ph] and I’m from the University of Oxford. So as many of you will know, there was an Ebola virus outbreak in Western Africa that started towards the end of 2013 and was culminated in 2016. It is sought that approximately 11,000 individuals lost their life during this outbreak, a number that is thought to be a vast underestimate of what actually happened on the ground.

Regardless, the WHO and government bodies generated a hit list of those pathogens that they thought might cause the next pandemic or the next outbreak of concern. And many of these viruses will be known to the audience. So likely you have heard of Zika virus and you’ve heard of ebola virus, but you may not have heard of fever or Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. These are all viruses that we at the University of Oxford have tried to make vaccines against. And I’ve been involved in all, if not — in most, if not all, of these programs. And there are different stages of development. We’ve used our viral vector platform to make vaccines against these pathogens. We’re not the only ones to have done so. There have been many people and many organizations. It’s been a global effort.

And really, when we were looking at the development process and time line to make a vaccine, it typically takes 5 to 10 years to get a vaccine from concept all the way to licensure. And that’s because normally, each of these steps are done sequentially. And that was certainly the scenario that we were looking at when we started to design a candidate vaccine against Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome, MERS is a coronavirus and it’s a vaccine that we’ve designed, tested in our preclinical studies, demonstrated efficacy in animal studies, went on to do a Phase 1 GMP manufacturer and then demonstrated in our Phase I clinical trials that the vaccine was immunogenic and safe. So these were data that we had prior to SARS-CoV-2 outbreak happening in 2019, 2020.

And when that outbreak happened, we looked at the typical development process and time line and we realized that we couldn’t do each of these steps sequentially because too many people would die. And this was a global realization. It was not a eureka moment for the University of Oxford alone. And what many manufacturers did to enable vaccines to get to licensure rapidly was to stack these studies. So we didn’t skip anything. We delivered everything that you would normally do in a 5- to 10-year program, but we took a risk and the risk that we took was a financial risk. So before we knew that we had a vaccine that was effective or efficacious, we’d already scaled up our manufacturer so that we could go on to license. And without the support of the U.K. government Serum Institute and AstraZeneca, we could have not have taken that risk. And that underpins some of the lessons that I have learned through this development process and highlight across the COVID pandemic.

So the first lesson that I’ve learned is that you need to plan for the future and you need to find money steps ahead. You’ll have plan A, B, C, D, E. And by the time you go to F or G, you might have something done as tenable, you might have something that is deliverable. I absolutely believe that you need to partner with pharma early. Academics are at blue skies, thinking the greater, pivoting the great at changing the direction of trouble at speed, but what we’re not great at is having the manpower or women power to get a product all the way through to licensure. I don’t think that’s appropriate for a university. And we really need to align with pharma early so that we are both pulling in the same direction.

As I’ve said, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is you need to work at risk. It goes without saying you never put the safety of your volunteers at risk.

And the last lesson that I’ve learned is that collaboration is absolutely key. Unique collaboration across government, regulatory authorities, international bodies, academics, charities and government bodies and pharma, of course, to be able to develop and deliver a vaccine in less than a year. And this is what underpinned that successful journey that we at the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, Moderna and others have had across the last year. We were able to develop — and design, develop tests and deliver a vaccine against our SAR-COV2 in less than a year. We have a number of other programs ongoing.

Currently at the moment, I have a vaccine against Sudan ebola virus, including Congo hemorrhagic fever and virus, filovirus in Phase I clinical development or close to Phase I. And the difficulty with those programs is that we’ve used the old development process and time line. And really what I think we need to do now, we’re at a unique point where we can take the lessons that we have learned from COVID and really use those lessons to speed up the development of these types of vaccines and all of those other vaccines that we need against emerging and outbreak pathogens.

So how do we do that? How do we enable those lessons that we have learned to allow us to deliver vaccines against a wide range of pathogens that could cause a pandemic. So for me, the success factors for a proactive approach towards vaccine design. The simplest pillar was the most important is people, places and processes. You absolutely need an established alignment of global collaborators. And in fact, without this pillar, you won’t be able to deliver the other 3. You need an open enabling dialogue across government, regs, industry, academia and charities to achieve what we’ve done across the last couple of years and to continue to be able to deliver in that manner. I firmly believe that you need long-term investment that is sustainable and joined all. And that investment needs to be in those countries where these pandemics happen most frequently.

You will also need rapid access or surge funding when that next pandemic happens. But actually, if we enable these 4 pillars, we’re going to be able to create a bedrock of impactful clinical research and health outcomes. So when you have these types of eureka moments, it’s not atypical for you to realize that other people have gone through a similar experience also very similar lessons. And in my case, they frequently put it far more eloquently.

So in 2021, the G7 leaders welcomed the 100 days mission. And this was a report that was altered by scientific, government and industrial experts. And there is a number of recommendations within this report, to enable readiness for diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines for the next pandemic. And one of those recommendations that I’m going to focus on in the last couple of slides, is to produce libraries of prototype vaccines. Why should we do that? Why is that important? Well, it will allow a paradigm shift?

So really, what we’re talking about is before a public health emergency of international concern or a pandemic is declared by the WHO, we actually have this enabling science already completed, that we have generated vaccines against potential pandemic threats so that when that pandemic comes, hopefully, we will have a wealth of knowledge around the types of antigens we need, the appropriate vaccine platforms and other enabling research to implement more readily, more rapidly these types of clinical trials so that we can have a vaccine more rapidly than a year.

Do I think 100 days is achievable? I think 100 days is both inspirational and aspirational. Do I think it will be tough? Absolutely, but most of the good things in life are tough and it doesn’t make me shy away from the challenge. It’s not the only thing we need to focus on. We absolutely need to focus on strengthening global surveillance. We need improvements to clinical trial capacity. We also need improvements to reg processes. We absolutely need regionalized, diagnostic therapeutic and vaccine manufacturing because without this, what will happen during COVID will happen again. LMICs will be behind and we cannot allow that to happen. LMICs referred to low and middle income countries.

We need sustainable pandemic financing, as I’ve already alluded to. We can think of this as almost a safety blanket, an insurance policy. And if we invest a little now, it means we won’t lose all those trillions that we have lost across the last handful of years, let alone the human life. We need to invest in a rigorous global health governance system as well. So these are all the types of enabling processes, technologies and ecosystem that we need to make sure we have so that we can have a truly 100-day mission compliance system. But as I’m a vaccinologist and an immunologist, I’m going to focus on why I think the libraries of prototype vaccines are important.

So has recently published a long list of viral families known to infect people. And the U.K. vaccine network has also generated a list of those pathogens they think could cause the next pandemic or outbreak of international concern. And the list from the WHO is expected early next year. So what should we do with this information? What should we do next? I firmly believe that we should collaborate towards disease X readiness. And this is a vision that is shared across the sector and certainly a vision that is shared within Moderna. So I believe that you need to plan for the future and plan money steps ahead, as I’ve already said. I think you need to generate preclinical and clinical data during an inter-pandemic period. You need to partner with pharma early. And our partnership combining academic rigor with scaled programmable platforms is critical.

On the mRNA access program that Moderna have enabled has been a game changer. It’s been absolutely transformational, in my opinion. You do need to work at risk. You’re not going to know which one of these viral families may cause the next pandemic. And indeed, it may be a bacteria and/or other pathogen. So you need to invest in developing prototype vaccines against a number of viral families knowing that not all of them are the ones that you’re going to need for the next pandemic. But using the knowledge that you’ve accumulated to help ready for the next pandemic, too, so to make the ecosystem, the people and the processes in the best shape for the next outbreak and/or pandemic.

And again, as I’ve already alluded to, collaboration is key. Oxford and Moderna have a very successful relationship ongoing that, at the moment, is centered around the RNA access facility and a brand that has recently been awarded that I will talk to you in the next slide. And together, we are collaborating to advance outbreak research with a validated scalable platform and to prioritize health outcomes. And that’s why that partnership for me is so important. We’re working together with the same ethos to develop and deliver better health outcomes that are scalable for the world.

So there’s been a recent war to Oxford and Moderna and a number of other collaborations have been made by; we are working on a vaccine library against arenaviruses. Arena viruses are viruses that have been identified as having a pandemic potential. We are going to use AI with our partners to speed up vaccine development to help identify novel antigens that we can stick into our vaccine platform technologies. We’re going to use the RNA technology for Moderna and the viral vector technology from the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. And what we’re going to do is test these technologies all the way through to Phase I. And in that way, we will have accumulated both knowledge and data that will help us if the next outbreak were to be an arenavirus. And this, I see as a stepping stone towards better preparedness. And it will help us if there is an outbreak across a wide array of different viruses. There are a number of different innovative steps that are involved in this application that will have wide-reaching consequences across pandemic preparedness.

So it just remains for me to thank everybody involved in this amazing amount of work across the years. I don’t name anybody because I always forget somebody in cause offense. But what I would like to do is end on a photo of the wonderful people that I work with on a day-to-day basis. These are people who are dedicated to helping improve human health and this was a visit that we had from the IPPS Committee. So I hope you have the rest of your day is wonderful and thank you very much for listening to me.

Hamilton Bennett

Great. I hope you can appreciate why we are so thrilled to call for Professor Lam, a collaborator. She’s truly enabling transformational work. I want to leave you with 1 slide that I think captures the progress that we’ve our platform. Before you is a map adapted from CEPI that plots a number of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. You might note that all corners of the world are at risk of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. And also that some of these pathogens are found in multiple regions. I hope this helps reinforce the importance of global collaboration towards global health security. And again, a concept that informs our approach to public health and Moderna collaboration.

If we click forward, now in red, I’m showing pathogens where we have built or are building preclinical and clinical data sets that will allow us to bring novel vaccines and therapeutics forward quickly using our mRNA technology. It’s truly remarkable progress for public health and we look forward to continuing to expand our effort through strategic collaborations in the years to come. I’ll now hand it over to my colleague, Debbie, to talk about Moderna’s commitment to the environment and sustainability. Thank you.

Deborah Donovan

Thanks so much, Hamilton. I’m Debbie Donovan. I lead the environment, health and safety function here at Moderna. And I’m excited to give you an update on our environmental sustainability activities. According to the Copernicus Climate Change service, 2023 is on track to be the warmest year since we began keeping records. In 2023, what you see in the photo is some of the devastating wildfires in Canada, smog affecting East, flooding, severe droughts and consensus of scientists that study climate change are that these global events are the result of human activities.

Climate change and air pollution can have a significant impact on human health and the cost of climate change on human health is estimated to grow to between $2 billion and $4 billion a year by 2030. And we support the scientific community’s consensus that climate change is exacerbated by human activity and we feel it’s our responsibility as a health care company to protect planetary health and, therefore, human health.

For many years, the scientific community has provided information on climate change, that international organizations, NGOs and some governments have used to create voluntary frameworks and requirements for companies to implement. But more recently, global warming trends indicated that much more action is needed and that action is needed more quickly. And as a result, there has been an increase in new and proposed regulations that will then require companies to take formal actions such as to disclose on their activities and risks related to climate change. This shift is most apparent in the recent European Union Corporate Sustainability Reporting directive, CSRD and the proposed rules from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on Climate-related disclosures. Currently, the SEC rule is only proposed but if it were adopted as is, it would formalize disclosure requirements for large accelerated filers like Moderna, where tracking, reporting and ultimately lowering carbon emissions has gone from voluntary towards the mandatory.

As a young company, we are in a very unique position to climate action as we grow and expand around the globe. Our sustainability strategy is based on 3 key pillars: sustainability by design, resource — natural resource conservation and decarbonizing our value chain. And these 3 pillars are built on a foundation of information collection, metrics and reporting, monitoring and continual improvement.

Before I speak to some of the activities we’ve accomplished in 2023 on those strategic pillars, I wanted to highlight some activities related to the overall sustainability program. In June of this year, we initiated a climate and risk scenario project with the aim of enhancing our understanding of climate-related risks and opportunities and developing initiatives to mitigate those top risks. This work will continue into 2024.

Information on our Scope 3 emissions, those are emissions in our value chain, water use and waste generation for both ’21 and ’22 are now available to the public on our website. And this is in addition to the previously reported information on energy consumption and our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. In July of this year, I’m also excited to report that we did our first CDP climate change survey and we’ve shared with the CDP community, our climate-related governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets programs. And we’ve also increased our data assurance level for environmental sustainability data from limited to reasonable in preparation of stakeholder expectations on the robustness of data verification.

Now, I’d like to discuss the first of our 3 strategic sustainability pillars, what we call sustainability by design. This enables us to avoid emissions before they occur. And what we’ve done is we’ve incorporated sustainability elements into facility design reviews. So at each gate in the design process, sustainability questions are raised and addressed. And this helps ensure that sustainability initiatives are built into the facility before it’s actually constructed. A primary example of that is the inclusion of heat pump technologies to reduce thermal energy — sorry, to produce thermal energy which will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel. We’ve also incorporated lead standards in new facilities and lead incorporates energy and water efficiency to avoid and reduce energy and water consumption.

On the right-hand side of the slide, you’ll see 5 new construction projects that are underway. The first one scheduled for completion, next year is our new corporate headquarters at 325 Binney Street here in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Together with our partner, Alexandria Real Estate, Moderna has designed our new corporate headquarters to be the most energy-efficient building currently constructed in Cambridge. This new facility incorporates a number of innovative technologies from heat pumps to on-site solar to rainwater harvesting.

In addition, our 4 new manufacturing facilities will also incorporate heat pump for thermal energy with one caveat being our facility in Laval, Canada which will use an electric boiler. And that’s exciting because the electricity in that local grid is predominantly from hydroelectric power and is near greenhouse gas-free. Our new facility in Marlboro, Massachusetts, will also utilize heat pumps, but it will have a backup natural gas boiler for when weather conditions are below optimal temperatures for heat pump operations. So although the facility does include a natural gas boiler, we anticipate those emissions to be a minor source and it’s for business resilience at this new facility. So while significant efforts have been directed at incorporating sustainability in new projects as we’re expanding around the globe, we want to avoid greenhouse gas emissions in our current operations as well.

And in 2023, we’ve done a number of things at the Norwood manufacturing facility in order to assess our energy and water use, to identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption and transition away from fossil fuels. We’ve also initiated my green lab assessments to understand awareness, behaviors and energy consumption within our laboratory spaces. And MindGreenLabs is a globally recognized organization that assist many companies in improving laboratory sustainability performance. And in addition, we’ve also completed a waste assessment in Norwood to understand waste generation and mapping to identify improvements both in the collection and the disposal methods for the waste that we generate.

And as with many of our peers, a significant portion of our greenhouse gas emissions fall within our Scope 3 category and are associated with our upstream and downstream value chains. Now available on modern.com are those Scope 3 emissions for ’21 and ’22. And understanding this information allows us to identify hotspots for greenhouse gas emissions so that we can target key suppliers to engage with and partner on reductions in their Scope 1 and 2 emissions which will ultimately benefit our Scope 3 emission reduction efforts.

And also, as mentioned last year, we continue to offer subsidized green transportation to the majority of our employees to enable them to make greener choices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with employee community. So I’m proud to say we’ve made significant efforts and enhancements to our sustainability program and we’ll continue these efforts in 2024. We will incorporate the learnings from the climate risk scenario analysis into our overall risk management program. We’ll submit our greenhouse gas reduction road map for official validation by the science-based target initiative. And we’ll continue to advance our energy and greenhouse gas programs.

Also as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Alliance for Clean Air, we’ll be working to enhance our disclosure of air pollutants which are in addition to our disclosure on greenhouse gas emissions. We’ll also formalize our U.K. Carbon Reduction Plan and the net zero challenge in Canada. And lastly, we’ll progress our water and waste programs to enhance our understanding opportunities for reduction and efficiency improvements.

And with that, I thank you and I’d like to turn the program over to Tracey Franklin.

Tracey Franklin

Thanks, Debbie. Hi, everyone. I’m Tracey. I lead Human Resources for Moderna. I’m happy to be here again this year to talk about our employee efforts and the sustained activity we’ve made in this space. You’ve heard from and met some of our incredible employees already. But I thought I would start with a video just to bring some of the spirit of our employees to life for you all.

[Video being played]

Tracey Franklin

So, thanks. So we’re incredibly committed to building an environment where our people thrive, a sponsor in the beginning, our people are everything for us. And so what I like to do is really look at data. And so we do internal surveys where we highly focus on engagement, culture belonging, we believe those are 3 critical ingredients for people to feel engaged and do their best work. In addition to that, though, I read through every single OpenText comment to get the context behind what people thrive, what type of an environment, what can we do better? So we use our internal survey as well as Stéphane mentioned, we participate in a lot of external surveys. Yes, it’s nice to get the recognition, but more importantly, we learned. We learned so much about our workforce, about our employees and what we can do better. So happy to continue to focus in this area from an environment perspective.

So last year, we introduced one of the key ingredients that really unites our people is our mission, our values, our mindsets. And we use this from a belonging diversity and inclusion perspective as well as in terms of how we scale our culture. It’s really that underpinning to what it feels like to thrive in our company.

So I’ll first focus on our workforce demographics. So as you can see from a gender perspective, we’re 49% all employee-based females as well as 39% from a female executive perspective. That dropped slightly. We’ll continue to monitor that, but overall, fairly proud of those numbers. We make progress in terms of race and ethnicity. And one of the things that we’ve been focused on is really the early talent pipeline. So how do we continue to hire and grow and embed this year, we had our first MBA program that was highly diverse, highly female. And so how do we make sure that we’re continuing to build those pipelines to grow in our environment.

The thing I continue to be most proud of is our pay equity, so we provide equal pay for equal work. This is the second year in a row and we’re committed to monitoring that moving forward. And then when I think about scaling our culture, we’ve introduced this concept of a people platform. So I showed our mission values and our mindsets in the previous slide. But this concept is really how do I look at our HR programs, our systems that underlie those programs as well as the data and how do I make sure that when we scale the company, no matter what level you are, where you are in the world, you’re essentially having the same employee experience and that our culture is really embedded throughout that employee life cycle journey.

So, we — before you even joined the company, we are talking about our mindsets and what it’s like to work in our company. We bring our employees together for onboarding, several day onboarding, where we really do a mindsets immersion during that course.

And then, the last thing I’ll touch on in this slide is learning and development. So we have a Moderna University and 2 of the colleges that I’ll highlight. One is the college of leadership and culture, where we do a lot of case studies, we’ve written internal case studies for employees to really understand what makes us thrive as well as our digital college. So we have a lot of investment in really making sure our employees have the most modern up-to-date skills in terms of AI and technology and what they need. So again, continuing to work on the underlying system for how we scale our environment and our culture.

And then in addition to that, we focus highly on the individual. So we have the system which I talked about in terms of the programs, but then what does it actually feel like in terms of individuality in our company. And so my strategy for diversity and inclusion starts with belonging. And why do we do that? One, I can hire diverse, I can include you at the table. But if you don’t feel like you belong, you’re not going to thrive in our environment. You’re not going to be able to be your authentic self and be able to innovate for so many patients that need our medicine. And so that sense of belonging is something that we really focus on in the company. And our mindsets are really united around that.

And the second thing is well being. We care deeply about our employees and recognize though that our employees are all different and what they need at different points in their life, whether it’s a financial, whether it’s from a mental health or family support, it all changes, as you all know, our lives are quite dynamic and change a lot. And so we provide programs that can really meet you where you are from an employee perspective. And so before I turn it over to Kate, I just wanted to show a quick video highlighting some of the benefits that our employees appreciate most.

[Video being played]

Tracey Franklin

So I focused a lot on the internal employee. Kate, is my dear partner who focuses on external which employees love as well. So it’s that internal-external communication that really drives engagement. So I’ll pass it over to Kate.

Katherine O’Malley

Thanks, Tracey and hello, everyone. I’m Kate O’Malley, Executive Director of Communications at Moderna. I’m pleased to be here today to share a bit more about our commitment to giving back in our communities. As Stéphane mentioned in his introduction, we constantly strive to extend our impact on society. And our commitment to our communities is just one example of how we do this. We continue to diversify and add more programs to our giving strategy and have achieved important milestones in the last few years.

On this slide, you can see our 4 current areas of focus. First, our corporate volunteering program. As we speak, our teams around the world are still celebrating all that was achieved during our fifth annual volunteer week. We continue to promote charity work throughout the year and our employees benefit from leave for volunteering. The second program in our giving strategy is employee gift-matching. Newly launched in 2022, our employee matching gift program and dollars for doers program, match monetary donations and time volunteered back to the non-profit organization. Both of these new programs are funded by the Moderna Charitable Foundation. As Stéphane also shared in his introduction, we are immensely proud to support so many impactful non-profits around the world.

The third program is philanthropic giving. In April 2022, we launched the Moderna Charitable Foundation to further support philanthropic giving at Moderna. Less than a year after becoming a commercial organization, our Board of Directors approved an initial upfront endowment of $50 million to support the foundation and its mission. The fourth program in our giving strategy is humanitarian relief. One example of this is the $1 million donation that our foundation made to the International Medical Corps to support medical and mental health services as well as the delivery of vital supplies to those affected by the tragic earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.

Just a few moments ago, my colleague, Debbie discussed the impacts of climate change on people and our environment. This year, we have witnessed an increased need to support communities being affected by natural disasters, including fires and flooding. Our foundation has engaged in relief efforts to support these communities and we are thankful to our employees who generously lend both their voices and resources during these times of humanitarian need. These 4 fundamental pillars of our giving strategy have further engaged our workforce, extended our support to communities and grown our partnerships with NGOs and organizations helping underserved populations.

For the remainder of my time today, I’ll share additional highlights from 2 of these pillars, corporate volunteering and philanthropic giving. As we work to maximize our positive impact on patients and society, we recognize that some of the most vulnerable communities continue to be disproportionately affected by inequalities that prevent them from accessing quality and essential health care services. Defined by the World Health Organization, social determinants of health are the nonmedical factors that influence health outcomes. There are conditions in which people are born, grow, work live and age and the wider set of forces and systems, shaping the conditions of daily life.

Research shows that these social determinants can be more important than health care or lifestyle choices in influencing health. For example, numerous studies suggest that social determinants of health account for between 30% and 55% of health outcomes. We also know that the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for generations to come. And on this slide, you can see some of the insights from the WHO about the influence of the pandemic on the social determinants of health.

As we at Moderna execute our giving strategy to address some of these issues, our commitment to serve communities where we live and work remains stronger than ever. This is a continuation of our journey and core to our mission to deliver the greatest impact possible.

Through corporate volunteering, we’re not only engaging and responding to the needs of our communities, but also enabling our employees to give back to their communities in support of our mission. As Tracey alluded to in her comments a few moments ago, our team members are the driving force behind our scientific progress and our culture. We’re proud to attract purpose-driven employees who believe in Moderna’s mission. Their dedication to extending our impact by giving back to our communities was only strengthened during the pandemic and our charitable initiatives have evolved to meet their needs, including more global volunteer opportunities as well as the matching gifts program I mentioned a moment ago.

Moderna is fortunate to work with dozens of community partners that welcome our employees to contribute to their causes and the causes that matter most to them. This year, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of Moderna locations hosting volunteer events, allowing us to reach even more people as we scale. As you know, we believe that mRNA can transform medicine and we are passionate about our science. We feel responsible to share our mission, promote education, an important social determinant of health as well as innovation and curiosity which is 1 of our core values. Sparking interest in science from a young age means investing in future scientists, just as 1 example of where we’re focusing our volunteer efforts.

The pictures you can see on the slide illustrates the passion and the gratitude for which our employees volunteer in support of different causes around the world.

Now, turning to philanthropic giving. The Moderna Charitable Foundation was established in 2022 to support organizations that promote public health, further access to quality health care, advanced scientific education and innovation and advocate for diversity and inclusion, particularly in underserved populations. We are so proud that in 2022, the foundation supported organizations around the world with $7.8 million in grants, $4 million of which were focused on improving health systems and health care in sub-Saharan Africa. Although we’re a young foundation, we feel extremely privileged to have already established partnerships with organizations that are having a profound impact in local and global communities. I’ll spend the next few minutes walking you through some of their stories.

We are excited about our investments in STEM and partners like Science Club for girls in Boston which has a vision of a fully inclusive and innovative STEM ecosystem populated by diverse and talented individuals. Education, of course, is an important social determinant of health and an important investment in the scientists of the future. We also believe in the importance of using digital channels to educate society and increase health literacy, especially in communities that may lack the opportunity to learn about their health in a meaningful and enduring way. The unbiased science podcast is an innovative means to reach communities on their health in a way that’s digestible and that meets their needs. We believe this is important for people to make informed decisions about their health.

As mentioned before, the most vulnerable communities are still suffering from inequalities that were greatly exacerbated by the pandemic. And as a result, access to mental health support may be more important than ever. We’re proud to support an award-winning evidence-based campaign designed and led collaboratively by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CDC Foundation in the U.S. The campaign provides tailored mental health resources, tools and support to promote and strengthen the emotional well-being and resilience of K-12 teachers and school staff, who experience chronic stress, grief and loss during the pandemic and shifting geographies.

We’re also supporting an ongoing project from Imperial College London and their partners to reach children who are orphaned after losing a parent or caregiver during the pandemic. The pilot program being conducted in Colombia, aims to identify effective policy-driven tools for helping children with a goal of setting these insights and expanding to other countries.

And for our final partner highlight, last year, we began an amazing partnership with Amref Health Africa, an organization working to transform the health outcomes through investing in well-being and lives of women and children as agents of change in African communities. The Moderna Foundation supported a project across 4 counties in Kenya that use innovative approaches to engage communities on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination. Also to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines through mobile vaccination clinics and outreach events and to integrate noncommunicable disease education and screening with COVID vaccination. The impressive milestones achieved by Amref during our partnership this year speak for themselves and we are grateful for their important work and the positive impact on communities in Kenya.

Let’s watch a short video of team in action.

[Video being played]

Katherine O’Malley

We believe that working to tackle vaccine hesitancy and investing in resilient, equitable and integrated primary care services is essential to responding to disease outbreaks. We’re grateful for our partnership with Amref and all that we have accomplished together thus far. With that, I’m happy to hand the presentation to Shannon Klinger, our Chief Legal Officer, who will walk us through our governance and ethics section. Thank you.

Shannon Klinger

Thank you, Kate. My name is Shannon Klinger and I’m the Chief Legal Officer for Moderna as well as the President of the Moderna Charitable Foundation. If you think about governance, we start with our Board of Directors and we believe that sound governance practices and policies provide the foundation for establishing Moderna as a responsible corporate citizen, maintaining the trust of our stakeholders and ensuring the success of our company. We have 9 individuals with deep experience in our industry and in groundbreaking innovation that enable us to do what we do every day.

I’d like to highlight just a few characteristics of our Board. If we look at our Board of Directors, of the 9 directors, 3 are women. And all 3 women on our Board chair 1 of our standing committees of which there are 5. The Board and our committees meet regularly throughout the year. And we have an incredibly engaged Board with a high level of attendance and engagement that allows us as a management team to leverage their X piece. For example, deep experience in information security which is critical as we think about things like cybersecurity. Deep experience in the health care industry. Deep international experience as we continue to expand our footprint around the world. And of course, manufacturing and supply chain expertise to make sure we deliver our products to the people who need them.

ESG oversight starts with our Board and committees for Moderna. And a true commitment requires engagement at every level of our organization. The Board’s nominating and corporate governance committee has principal oversight for ESG practices, our metrics, the ESG report that we talked about earlier that you’ve been able to see and even the content and the items that we talk about today. In addition, that committee is responsible for Board succession, identifying new Board candidates as we continue to ensure the right Board for Moderna as we move forward. But there are a number of other committees who also have responsibility for important ESG For example, the Audit Committee has oversight responsibility for our enterprise risk management program as well as for cybersecurity.

And our Compensation and Talent Committee focuses on human capital management and oversees the great work you heard about that Tracey talked about today around belonging, inclusion, diversity. Our Product Development Committee focuses on overseeing matters related to product safety, clinical trial design and the work that Jameka talked to us about around clinical trial diversity. And finally, our Science and Technology Committee oversees our IP strategy.

As an executive committee, we have ESG accountability broadly dispersed amongst all of us as you see this slide. Jared Collins, our Chief Technical and Operations Officer, leads our carbon reduction efforts. Albert leads our access initiatives from a commercial perspective. Tracey, as we mentioned, leads our human capital initiatives. And Stephen Hoge has oversight for clinical trials, including the diversity in clinical trials.

When it comes to incentives, our annual bonus programs have ESG metrics in them related to human capital. And we want how we believe ESG is our value to be reflected also on how we as a team are rewarded and incentivized. We go to the next slide, as we continue our ESG journey, it’s important that we continuously engage with our stakeholders and validate our understanding of those topics that are most important for Moderna. With this objective in mind, earlier this year, we launched a materiality assessment which included an assessment of our double materiality. Double materiality takes into account both financial and nonfinancial material impacts of a company’s ESG factors.

Our assessment is being done across 2 dimensions and outside in assessment which looks at how ESG factors impact our financial performance and value creation as well as an inside out which looks at how Moderna’s activities, products and services impact society and the environment. You heard us mention several times today that we are focused on delivering the greatest impact to people with our mRNA medicines. We believe that conducting this double materiality assessment is an important step in our journey to understand how ESG factors are interconnected and drive our impact as a company and also to better understand how we can enhance our communication and engagement with our stakeholders, like all of you who are listening today, in addition to complying with new regulatory requirements and reporting standards.

So this year, we launched a double materiality analysis with certain characteristics which we think will best help Moderna gain insights that are relevant to us. First, we’ve chosen a methodology and a platform that allows us to analyze a vast amount of data and we leverage AI access information and the potential material topics for Moderna. Some of this information includes, for example, the latest industry trends, new regulations, news and media as well as information about our peers.

Second, we’re compiling the data with a stakeholder survey, where we’ve engaged key groups. With this information, we’ll be able to complete our double materiality analysis which will inform our next report. It’s been super exciting to see that across each of our stakeholder groups on the outside that we’ve engaged, the response rate has exceeded what we understand to be an industry benchmark. And we thank all of you who participated this year and look forward to your continuing contributions going forward. Finally, one of the key characteristics of the process that we are building is that we will be able to continuously monitor material changes to our analysis and engage meaningfully with our stakeholders in real time about those ESG topics that are both most relevant to you and most relevant to Moderna.

When it comes to our ethics and compliance program, we’re continuing to evolve that program to be — to evolve as Moderna itself is evolving. And you can see the key elements of that program on One example is moving to principal-based policies that can guide our employees in their decisions. Also, we continue to build a risk-based due diligence and monitoring processes and embed a patient-centered culture in all of our trainings and communications; and we do all of this with a digital-first mindset.

In terms of our supply chain, we’re continuing to enhance sustainability across our third parties as well. Since our call last year, we have launched our sustainable and responsible procurement program as well as our third-party code of conduct. We continue to engage with our partners and suppliers to build a supply chain that reflects Moderna’s values. We are integrating our expectations of third parties throughout our procurement process and recently launched an assessment of our suppliers by spend on the various topics that you see at the bottom of the slide to make sure that their performance in each of these areas mirrors Moderna’s commitment and values in each of those areas. And we’re also engaging with our peers in PSCI to learn and align on best practices that can maximize the impact collectively we can have on our industry, on our environment and our communities. And we’re continuing to work in the most important forms to be part of that shared solution going forward.

Finally, we remain committed to transparency about our ESG efforts. We’ve reflected this in our second annual ESG report that was issued earlier this year. I invite all of you to take a look at it if you have not had a chance to do so as well as the ESG event that we’re having today. And we’re continuing to focus on enhancing our disclosures across our website so that in real time, you also can see where are we, how are we measuring ourselves, how are we holding ourselves and watch us continue to improve as we move through our journey.

An important highlight this year was already shared by Debbie. We published our environmental 2021 and 2022 data that had third-party assurance as an example of how we’re accelerating our journey and preparing to comply with new regulatory and disclosure requirements around our environmental efforts. We know that we cannot create the most impactful version of Moderna in isolation. Your continuous input into our purpose is critical for us and helps us anticipate your needs to ensure we create long-term value. We are excited about the opportunity to continue our dialogue and demonstrate Moderna’s accountability to our overall ESG strategy. We look forward to engaging in our Q&A today and after this event.

And with that, I hand it over to Stéphane for closing.

Stéphane Bancel

Well, Shannon and team, thank you so much for those exciting presentations. I hope everybody understands that this framework that I described in my introduction is really key to how we think about building the company. We’re not taking a short-term view on this company. We’ve always thought in 5-, 10-year increments. And how do we build the best version of Moderna that impact the most number of people. That is really the driving force behind everything we do. I hope you have seen today what the team has shown you in terms of progress but also through every different participants, the commitment. And we didn’t pick the only people Moderna that are very committed to all those ESG topic; this is of the team. And what is exciting is it’s a bit of a snowball effect which is more we engaged people, the more people can engage with the company in the different topics that they are passionate about.

Everybody is by different things and we’re trying to really find the best fit. So that really all talent is able to take the company to the next level to challenge all of us, including the management team, including the Board that we build the best version of Moderna. There is no other objective that we have but to bring the greatest possible impact to people to mRNA medicine. We believe in amazing platform and we want to make sure that we maximize its impact. So with this, I would like to call Vertib to join me please, for our Q&A session. Operator, let’s get into Q&A. Thank you.

Question-and-Answer Session

A – Lavina Talukdar

Thank you, everyone, for all those great presentations. [Operator Instructions] Okay. I do see some questions coming in that have already been submitted. So let me kick it off with those. The first one is a broad question on ESG and I’ll ask Stéphane to answer this one, please. Please comment on how you view the intersection of ESG and its role in Moderna’s business strategy. Stéphane?

Stéphane Bancel

Yes. Thank you, Lavina. I think it goes back to what I shared in my introduction which is we always start with the end game which is we have this amazing information-powered molecule platform. And the question is how do we maximize the impact on patients if you take a 5-year, 10-year, 20-year view on the company? And that has always been our mindset since we started 12, 13 years ago. And every day, we ask for the same question which is how do we maximize impact on patients. It’s the mission that I presented twice today is actually painted in every conference room of the company. And I can tell you, we point to it several meeting and that’s really our true north. And so the ESG framework for us is just a way to think about the impact and how do we build a sustainable business that is the best version of Moderna. That is responsible about the environment.

But of course, it’s deeply caring about the employees who build the business and run the business every day. Without them, there is nothing. And how the different stakeholders of the company are involved in the design of this best version of Moderna, that’s what we care about which is why as Shannon said, we are very pleased through all the investor feedback we got during the fall and we want to continue to have that feedback coming in so that we can figure out what’s the best path, but that’s really why we think it’s so important for Moderna.

Lavina Talukdar

Great. There are several questions in the queue about our commitment to developing emerging pathogens. By 2025, can you elaborate — this question will be for Hamilton on the selection of viruses to develop vaccines against and can research from mRNA access contribute to the selection process. Hamilton?

Hamilton Bennett

Yes. Thank you very much for the question. As I mentioned during the presentation, our initial list was formed by information that we were collecting from global stakeholders, the WHO, SEPI, NIH. And that formed the initial prioritization of the pathogens that we call kind of the 15 25 pathogens. But we are also looking to mRNA access and continued engagement with those external stakeholders to tell us what the next wave of program should be, where can we use our technology to have the greatest public health impact, where do we see promise for mRNA science and where can we really deploy our technology uniquely to have a positive impact on public health. So it’s a portfolio of programs that we continue to evaluate, continue to reprioritize and we do that through ongoing dialogue with our external stakeholders and external scientists.

Lavina Talukdar

Great. Thank you, Hamilton. A technical question for Deborah Donovan, please. What are the next steps with SBTI?

Deborah Donovan

Thanks for the question. The next steps for us are to submit our short-term and long-term goals along with our road map for SBTI to evaluate. And what they do at SBTI is they look at those goals and the rate of decarbonization to make sure it’s in line with the Paris Climate Accord which was based on the international panel on climate change, scientists, the 1.5-degree scenario, they call it, to make sure that we keep warming below 1.5 degrees C. So the science-based target initiatives make sure that our targets at Moderna are aggressive enough and that they are in line with the latest climate science. And we’ll submit that in early next year and get validation of those targets, hopefully by midyear.

Lavina Talukdar

Great. One more for Debbie. Could you provide us a time horizon by which you will have finished the auditing process of Scope 3 emissions?

Deborah Donovan

So in Scope 3 emissions, we — I wouldn’t call it auditing process, but the way we’ve calculated Scope 3 emissions is we’ve engaged external support. We use the STEM-based method as well as some of the modeling that’s available that gets to the details of the different categories of upstream and downstream emissions. And we have a third-party verifier that assures both the process and the data. So I’m not sure if that’s what the question was referring to in terms of the audit, but we have a third-party verification of that data and of our process. And if there are any improvement opportunities in the process, we get that from the verifier and then we obviously continuously improve our internal mechanisms.

Lavina Talukdar

Great. Thank you. A question on culture for Tracey. Tracey, can you please highlight measurement metrics and that you use internally, whether they are of off-the-shelf measurement testing processes or if they are custom made for Moderna?

Tracey Franklin

Thank you. We do a combination of both. And so like I said in the presentation, data is our friend and it’s something that we seek. So there are mechanisms and surveys that we use internally that we have the ability to customize, but we also look at best practices and combinations of things that we should ask. And then the external recognition and surveys that we participate in also give us data back so we can look at benchmarks and monitor those as well. And in addition to hard data, we have employee resource groups. We have the voice of the employee and they provide us ongoing subjective feedback. And then one other one we do total rewards optimization surveys. So like you saw have the customization in terms of how we think about benefits, we really do a lot of research around what might be beneficial for folks and what they actually want before we implement them. Thanks for the question.

Lavina Talukdar

Great. Thank you, Tracey. A question on governance for Shannon. Can you speak to the Board’s skill set and experience and how it contributes to ESG oversight?

Tracey Franklin

I think we talked about that also during the presentation in terms of having a Board with a diverse background who worked all over the world with deep experience in areas like information security when we think about cybersecurity as a risk from an ESG perspective. When we think about living and working globally and helping ensure that we have the right access programs as we continue our ambition to launch 15 programs over the next 5 years. If we think about the experience that they have running other companies, oversee things like environmental, social and governance programs to help us be the best version of ourselves. And so for us, we think we have the right oversight, starting with the Nomination and Governance Committee. But really, as we talked about this presentation, every single committee on our Board plays a role in ensuring that we execute on our ESG strategy to be the best version of the Moderna.

Lavina Talukdar

Great. And — this is a broader question that I’ll open it up to the panel, because I’m sure each of you will have something that you want to discuss. What is an exciting area of Moderna’s ESG efforts that you think investors don’t ask enough about? What is missing from the conversations you have and that you wish investors could even be of help on in the process of your — on the process of your important ESG work. So let’s kick that off with Stéphane first.

Stéphane Bancel

So how long do you have, Lavina. No, seriously, I think it’s around all the chapters for me because ESG is not one magic bullet, the environment or people or culture of a community. It’s really about how do we build the company and speaking about all the stakeholders and is raising the bar every day, every day, every day. This obsession about learning that we have as part of our mindset is essential, not only the work we do in science, but just how we run the business. We talked about it the use of AI in our recent digital there. And it’s something around ESG which is — it’s always part of the discussion which is how do we raise the bar on those topics which is why when we meet with investors, there’s so much to talk about with product and financials and science that a lot of time, there’s not enough time to talk about ESG.

And so, I really welcome opportunities to learn from other companies. We do a lot of benchmark ourselves, try to compare ourselves to the best across industries, of course, not biopharma across industries. But I think that to how do we keep raising the band, how do we prioritize the road maps to make sure that we keep becoming the best version of Moderna.

Lavina Talukdar

Great. And as it seems we are at time, there aren’t any additional questions submitted through the portal. But as everyone knows, please do contact the IR team. We are happy to take all of your questions. And with that, I wish everyone a great day and thank you to all of our presenters and the audience as well.